Carriers have had more thrown at them in the last five years than most industries see in a generation. Covid-19 chaos. Driver Inc. Exploding insurance costs. Driver shortages. Rate pressure. Fleets have had to scratch and claw for every load just to stay alive.
But the tide seems to be turning.
Insolvencies are rising. Marginal operators are shutting down. Enforcement is tightening. Capacity is leaving the market. For the first time in a while, carriers can see light at the end of the tunnel.
Unfortunately, trucking has a habit of replacing one problem with another. And a new one is quietly creeping into the market.
Private fleets. More shippers are deciding they’d rather run trucks themselves.
I first saw this playbook years ago, when we were building a dedicated division at MSM. We stumbled onto a simple tactic. We hired university students, handed them gas money, and sent them driving through industrial areas at night and on weekends, writing down the name of every private truck they saw parked in a yard.
Every parked truck was a lead.
The success rate for converting these operations back to for-hire was shockingly high. Most companies had no real idea what they were doing when it came to fleet operations.
Weak compliance. Limited safety oversight. Dispatch run by whoever had time.
In many cases, these private fleets were lawsuits on wheels. Yet their biggest obstacle had nothing to do with cost or risk. It was vanity.
Executives loved seeing their company logo rolling down the highway. They believed their own BS, thinking these rolling billboards were good for business.
Control feels good
It’s not much different today. For executives who have spent the last three years apologizing to customers for missed pickups and blown appointments, owning the trucks seems like the answer.
Technology has also lowered the barrier to running private fleets. Routing software, telematics, visibility platforms, and outsourced safety services make running trucks look easier than it once did.
It isn’t. But the feeling of control is driving decisions.
Cherry-picking season
Make no mistake, private fleets are a threat. They compete for the best freight. Once companies buy trucks, they naturally start hauling their most attractive loads: the dense, consistent lanes that are the most predictable and profitable.
Their trucks already move company products, so any extra backhaul capacity is an opportunity to cherry-pick profitable shipments that fit neatly into their network.
But now private fleets are hauling smaller shipments. A 600‑lb. skid on an otherwise empty trailer looks like free money. Multiply that across hundreds of trucks, and a lot of attractive freight is quietly disappearing from the traditional for-hire market.
Drivers notice
Private fleets have another advantage. Drivers.
Predictable schedules, steady pay and benefits, newer equipment, and getting home at night are powerful recruiting tools. Add a little outside freight to keep trucks productive, and those jobs become even more attractive.
Losing good freight is bad enough, but siphoning off good drivers at the same time is a serious problem.
Build a better offer
While private fleets may be threats today, they’re also future customers.
Because the truth is, a widget company makes money by making widgets, not by running trucks. Over time, insurance costs climb. Compliance requirements get heavier. Managing drivers is a unique and constant challenge. Equipment sits idle when freight patterns shift.
Carriers know these realities better than anyone. You can make the math work in ways that a chief financial officer (CFO) running a private fleet cannot.
For-hire carriers need to compete where private fleets are winning.
Shippers have real reasons to want control. But most of them will eventually discover that trucking is a lot harder than it looks.
Don’t wait for them to struggle. Show how you can match the schedule reliability, service levels, and visibility of a private fleet and the conversation changes. You’re no longer defending your price. You’re solving their problem.
Knock on those doors now. Offer dedicated solutions that deliver the same service without the headaches. Be in the room when the CFO starts asking hard questions. That’s where the opportunity lies.
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